'All signs are good' - Van Aert returns to the fray at Gent-Wevelgem

Wout van Aert’s defiant third place at Milan-Sanremo last weekend led to murmurs that he might be tempted to add the E3 Saxo Classic to his programme, but the Belgian ultimately opted to stick rigorously to the preordained plan.

Indeed, Visma | Lease a Bike insist that there was never any possibility of deviating from a schedule that had been so carefully devised over the winter. The aim was always for Van Aert to be at his best for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, and no amount of post-Sanremo giddiness was going to change the thinking of a team that, for better or worse, has always tended to privilege data over vibes.

“In the team it was never the issue that he should start in Harelbeke,” directeur sportif Arthur van Dongen told Domestique. “That was something in the press and that’s it, but in the winter, we made a plan and we’re sticking to the plan.”

Van Aert instead opted to complete another block of training in midweek before returning to the fray at Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday. This year, the race has been given the rather awkward rebrand of In Flanders Fields - from Middelkerke to Wevelgem, but the new name and start town won’t alter the tenor of a race Van Aert knows better than most.

He won a breathless edition of the race with a rasping sprint in Wevelgem in 2021. Two years later, on a day of rain and gloom, Van Aert ceded victory to teammate Christophe Laporte after their long two-up break.

Van Aert’s quest to add to his running tally of one Monument victory – now almost six years ago at the pandemic-delayed Milan-Sanremo – is well documented, but it has been more than two years since the Belgian last won a Classic of any description at the 2024 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.

With Tadej Pogačar absent, with Mads Pedersen still feeling his way back into action after his crash at the Tour de Provence, and with Mathieu van der Poel 48 hours removed from a bruising E3 Harelbeke win, this could be an open Gent-Wevelgem. 

“We saw in Tirreno that he became better and better day by day, and we saw more of that in Sanremo,” Van Dongen said. “We think he’s ready and we’ll see it on Sunday at Gent-Wevelgem, and hopefully next week. All signs are good. We will see.”

But while Gent-Wevelgem presents Van Aert with an opportunity to win, he and his team know the success of his Spring will be gauged entirely on what happens at the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix, where Pogačar and Van der Poel are again heavily favoured.

“We know he would really like to win all these races. But if he wins here or not, it doesn’t really make his career,” Van Dongen said. 

“It’s not so important in that he’s already very famous in Belgium and he already has a fabulous career. That’s not an issue that is doubting or struggling with. 

“The most important thing is that he does a good race and when he is in the race, then all is possible. Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen suit him well, of course. We have confidence and we think he is ready to battle with his biggest opponents.”

Van Aert will be flanked by Christophe Laporte, Edoardo Affini and Timo Kielich on Sunday in a Visma squad that will also feature Matthew Brennan as a sprint option. The Briton was forced to miss Milan-Sanremo due to illness, but he has recovered sufficiently to line out here.

“He’ll start on Sunday and I think he needs a race again,” Van Dongen said. “But hopefully on Wednesday [at Dwars door Vlaanderen] he’s on fire again.”

In 2024 and 2025, Van Aert opted against riding a stage race in March, preferring an altitude camp in March as his final build-up to the Classics. This time out, he reverted to a more traditional programme. The early returns look promising, even if Van Dongen acknowledged it was too soon to say if the change has definitively worked.

“For the moment I would say yes,” he said. “The real answer I can’t give you until after Roubaix, but for the moment, I think yes…”

Gent-Wevelgem should reveal more.